The worldwide network of computers commonly known as the "Internet" has seen explosive growth in the last several years. This growth has been fueled by the introduction and widespread use of web browsers which allow for simple graphical user interface-based access to network servers. In turn, the network servers support documents formatted as "web pages." The "WorldWide Web" (WWW) commonly used to refer to a collection of servers on the Internet that utilize a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is a known application protocol that provides users with access to files having a myriad of formats, such as text, graphics, sound, and video, among others, using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows a developer to specify "links" to other servers and files. Use of an HTML-compliant client browser involves specification of a link via a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Upon specifying a link via a URL, the client makes a tcp/ip request to the server identified in the link and receives a "web page" in return. It should be noted that the "web page" is a document formatted according to HTML.
In an attempt to make the graphical user interface associated with a web browser easier and more intuitive to a novice user of the Internet, a graphical user interface which responds to voice commands for accessing web pages from the World Wide Web has been implemented. For example, International Business Machines Corporation has implemented voice navigation for the World Wide Web in an OS/2 WebExplorer portion of its OS/2 Warp Version 4 operating system. Additionally, such voice navigation capability is available with the Netscape Navigator 2.02 for the OS/2 operating system. In the voice command interface utilized in the OS/2 operating system, a speaker's sound and language pattern are identified. Subsequently, the sounds detected by the computer system utilizing the OS/2 operating system convert the sounds into text. Therefore, by uttering a simple statement such as "Jump to x home page," the OS/2 operating system automatically accesses the World Wide Web and the web page desired by the user. However, the voice command interface of the OS/2 operating system requires the desired home page to be predefined. For example, the definition of the home page must be manually stored within a group of terms recognized by a speech recognition unit of the OS/2 operating system prior to execution of a voice command. See, "New I.B.M. Software to Hear Commands," The New York Times, Tuesday, Apr. 23, 1996.
Furthermore, even when the desired home page is accessed through a voice command, subsequent operations within the web page require a user to interface with the web page using more traditional techniques, such as a mouse or keyboard. Therefore, a neophyte user of a web page is not able to resort to the easily understandable and intuitive interface provided by a voice command interface. Therefore, a need exists for the user interface which provides an intuitive and easily usable interface for accessing information from a network of computers such as the World Wide Web.